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james-vi-stan-blog · 5 months

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wow. that’s so much information I’m definitely going to have to research on:) so what would be your hope on how the show portrays King James (and I guess George Villiers and their ‘relationship’) that doesn’t make him out to look entirely like a bad person? Including his disability too (I believe he had some sort of paranoia and a speech impediment/stutter?)

-✨

Keeping in mind that I truly lick the bottom of the barrel for ANY James content. I watched freakin' Anonymous for James.

I would like to see James as a human being. Yes, he has become this ridiculous being, and there are so many weird things about him, some seriously off-putting, but perhaps we can acknowledge that a human being born and raised into the extreme circumstances of his life would inevitably turn out like that.

Show him as a NERD, the greatest scholar to ever sit on the English throne. (And also show that his intellectual ego is overinflated, have him call himself "a Second Solomon" and everyone side-eyes him, show him as an overgrown gifted kid who only know how to talk at people, not to people.) Give him great witty quips. Show his friendliness and informality, a down-to-earth side that he unfortunately expresses in the worst way possible. Explore how his casualness, which we would probably receive positively in royals today, was seen as a failure after the era of tightly controlled artifice and ritual of Elizabeth. Show him as a man truly committed to peace and tolerance in a time period when those were dirty words.

And please, PLEASE show him as driven by love, not sex, not just because that would be more accurate but because that would make the story so much more interesting!!! It doesn't have to depicted sympathetically, or imply that love is a higher or more virtuous desire or something. I do not care about sorting characters into "good" and "bad" when we're talking real history and the horror of the Jacobean period.

I don't have high expectations or demands (as I said, I lick the bottom of the barrel and go "yum, James content") but even just a bit of some of these things would delight me.

As for disability... well... ableism tw?

James's purported disabilities all suffer from the problem of diagnosing people in the past. Different historians and doctors read history books or the notes of the court physician and go, "aha, see, he definitely had [insert my pet favorite condition here]!"

For example, there is all kinds of debate about James's supposed speech/swallowing issue. He was said to have a tongue too big for his mouth, to drop food/drink out of the sides of his mouth (uhh i do that irl), etc. But when you read reports that James's speech was incomprehensible... who's writing this report? Was it an English courtier angry that James arrived in England surrounded by his most trusted Scottish courtiers? What if James just... had a Scottish accent??? Can't you very easily picture an Englishman calling a Scottish accent a tongue deformation? I mean, I am inclined to think James did have actual tongue issues because he complained about it to his physician, but every single comment that was written by James's contemporaries about his body came from some perspective, some agenda.

Probably, James did have some physically embodied difference that the people around him sensed. (And this physical difference came together with his sexual difference, personality difference, etc., to create someone who stood out as "queer" to those around him.) But, specifically naming that difference, pinning it to some diagnosis, is a political act now as it was then. Every depiction must do it (Gunpowder, Treason, & Plot (2004), a super weird homophobic and ableist depiction, gave him partial paralysis; Gunpowder (2017) gave him a peculiar walk, etc.) but the way they choose to depict it and why will have implications.

Here's what I fear.

We're already seeing people lining up to defend poor widdle George Villiers (GEORGE VILLIERS! George Villiers) because an "ugly" (???) old man is creeping on him. We see this really rigid, puritanical* sorting of characters into "good guys" and "bad guys" which for some reason lines up with beauty and how much the audience wants to see the actor naked. There's evidence that the show is going to lean into the depiction of James as slovenly and gross (banquet chaos, weird licking, his pants falling off). A depiction that, like I mentioned before, was solidified by centuries of historians who found James off-putting for a variety of reasons... among them, homosexuality and disability.

I would, in fact, love to see James depicted as disabled. (If it were me, I would show him with ataxia and probably ADHD.) And further, you know what I would love? For a character who is gross, physically different, weird, not to be depicted as evil because of those things.

It is, in fact, not evil to be merely weird and gross. And gross people are still capable of giving and receiving love.

But... how is it gonna be received by this audience if James is physically different? Slurring, falling over, wracked by digestive problems? In a visual medium, in a show that looks to be marketing itself on sex appeal and spectacle... In TV/film, where the siren call of "beauty equals goodness" is probably the strongest of any medium... when you mark a character as different, when you highlight and display that difference... how will that function in the story, what are you saying with it, and how is the audience going to receive it?

That doesn't mean I don't think they should do it, I'm just... bracing myself.

*inside joke lol because James fuckin hated Puritans

#james vi and i #mary & george #disability in media #james's weird stan rambles again #tw ableism #content note

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dilfdoctordoom · 3 years

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On Tom Taylor, the Current Nightwing Run & Ableism

I did mention I was gonna do a post about it, so here we are. There are some things I want to make clear before we begin: the issue exploded on Twitter on the very first day of disabled Pride month; disabled people have been discussing the ableism in Taylor’s Nightwing run since it began; nobody has blamed Taylor for what happened to Barbara in 2011. We are, however, blaming him for the way she is written in his series during 2021.

I am also going to be discussing the ableism in the fandom in this post. The reactions I have seen, from here to Twitter to TikTok, are showing not only a great misunderstanding of the situation, but a purposeful misunderstanding. The very real reasons disabled people are angry right now have been twisted to make us seem ridiculous and overly sensitive and I cannot help but feel that is very intentional.

Another quick addition: disabled people are not a monolith. Barbara Gordon spent over 20 years as a paralyzed wheelchair user. Stating (and I would like to note, never truly showing) that she is a part time cane user now is still erasing her disability. These things are not interchangeable.

So, with that out of the way, let’s begin.

Tom Taylor’s run is ableist. That is a fact of this situation. He made the active choice to include a version of Barbara Gordon that is ableist caricature. Story wise, the role that Barbara plays could have easily been filled by anyone else. There is no real season, within the narrative and outside of it, for Taylor to include this version of Barbara Gordon, who has received a decade of criticism from disabled people. It’s very well known that this iteration is problematic, to put it kindly, and Taylor is aware of that.

He made the active decision to include her, anyway, showing, at the very least, that he is passively, if not actively, ableist. Passive ableism is still ableism and disabled people are allowed to take issue with that.

That alone is reason enough for disabled people to be angry. But that’s not why things exploded on Twitter.

On July 1st, the very first day of disabled pride month, the new design for Barbara was dropped. After months of teasing Barbara’s return to a wheelchair using Oracle (see: Last Days of The DC Universe, Batgirl (2016), etc), they debuted... a new Batgirl costume that the artist has openly said draws inspiration from the Burnside suit.

There’s a lot of issues to unpack here, so let’s start small: the issue with consciously calling back to Burnside. The Burnside era of Batgirl stories was... beyond awful. The villain of the series’ first arc, was an AI based on Barbara’s brain patterns when she was disabled. It was evil because of all the rage and pain Barbara felt. The actual Barbara, on the other hand, was good -- because she was able bodied. Because her PTSD had been tossed aside. It was a horrifically ableist era that drove the idea that Barbara’s life was terrible when she was disabled; that it was some horrible, twisted secret.

Comics have kept that narrative going. Barbara is seen hiding books on chronic pain; she reacts aggressively to the mere idea that she could be in a wheelchair again, acting like it would be weakness. Whereas Barbara had once been Oracle not because of, but in spite of, her disability, who was fantastic representation for the disabled community, she now acts like it is the most shameful thing in her life.

To call back to Burnside is to call back to that ableism and make no critique of it. If anything, it’s to embrace the ideas of that era.

There is also the design itself to consider. Many people have pointed out the inclusion of a back brace, as if that saves it from ableism -- it does not. Any person who has ever worn a back brace can take one look at this design and know that they did not consult a disabled person. Hell, by how impractical that thing is, I doubt they even Googled a picture of a back brace.

It’s a superficial acknowledgement that Barbara is supposed to be disabled. Something that was apparently thrown in to appease the numerous complaints of Barbara being able bodied; something that no one working on it put any effort into.

When it comes to aids, this is not a new thing for Barbara in Infinite Frontier. She’s said to be using a cane occasionally, that we got a better look at in Batman: Urban Legends, and as any cane user can tell you... that is not a cane that could feasibly be used. It’s another pathetic attempt to acknowledge that Barbara is supposed to be disabled, without actually doing anything of importance.

[IMAGE ID: A segmented cane with a tri-pointed handle with a wrist strap. There is a stripe across the sections to connection them, labelled “solar battery charger buttons”. The text reads: “telescoping antenna doubles as cane or weapon if needed”. END ID]

Dropping this design (which we have now established to be problematic) on the very first day of disabled pride month is a sickening move. The very first day, and DC has doubled down on their disability erasure, thrown in superficial things like a back brace to act like it’s fine.

Tom Taylor is definitely involved in this, whether you like it not. No, he is not in anyway responsible for the events of the New 52 and what they did to Barbara Gordon, but that does not absolve him of blame for what is currently being done to her in his run.

When the design dropped, it started trending due to disabled fans reactions. To be clear: we were directly calling out the ableism in this design. This was Tom Taylor’s response:

[IMAGE ID: A tweet from TomTaylorMade that says: “Hey, @Bruna_Redono_F I think our new Batgirl suit is getting some attention.” He then adds a winky face emoji and tags @jesswchen and @drinkpinkkink. Attached are a screenshot showing that Batgirl is trending in the United States and a picture of the design itself. END ID]

This is him, bragging about how the disabled community reacted. Perhaps before this tweet, you could’ve made an argument that he was not ableist, but after he flaunted the fact that disabled people were rightly furious over this, like it was something to be proud of? No. If you are defending him, you are a part of the problem.

Taylor has included ableist writing in his Nightwing run, beyond the inherent ableism that comes with the current iteration of Barbara Gordon (whose inclusion, yet again, is his decision).

[IMAGE ID: A panel from Nightwing #79. Barbara and Dick are standing in his apartment. Barbara is saying: “I have some pretty new technology holding my spine together. I’m happy to do most things -- eat pizza in the park, take down low-level thugs -- but leaping from rooftops seems... unwise.” END ID]

What Barbara says in the panel above has bothered a lot of disabled people. The implication that she couldn’t “eat pizza in the park’ and “take down low-level thugs” without a spinal implant that conveniently erases her disability is... fucked up, to put it mildly. Those are both things that Barbara has done in a wheelchair. The first one is something wheelchair users can do and the implication that it’s not is beyond offensive.

But, let’s leave Barbara behind for a moment. I have previously mentioned that disabled people have been discussing the ableism present in this run long before July -- and that ableism is not only centred on Barbara. Dick is also a player in all this.

Dick Grayson was shot in the head. I don’t believe I need to retread the story, but just in case: Dick was shot in the head by KGBeast, developed amnesia from the event, and went by Ric Grayson for a long enough period in comics. If you have been active within the DC fandom for the past year or so, you know all about this controversial storyline and its fallout.

The Ric Grayson arc concluded itself the issue before Taylor became the writer for the series and ever since his tenure has begun, Taylor has completely ignored the reality of Dick being a disabled man. We understand this is comics, that things do not function the way they do in our world, but still -- it is clear that this gunshot wound to the head has affected Dick massively. We had an entire arc dedicated to how he struggled to find himself in the aftermath.

Taylor is choosing to write Dick as an able-bodied man, despite his canonical injuries and how they would impact his life.

This man is choosing to give empty gestures towards Barbara being a disabled woman (as discussed above, the completely dysfunctional back brace, etc) whilst writing her as able-bodied as possible. He writes both Dick and Barbara as able bodied as humanly possible. That is ableist. He is ableist. This is the same man that said he made a dog disabled ‘in honour of Barbara’. I do not think I need to elaborate on why that is bad.

The least he could’ve done, was get a sensitivity reader. We know that Taylor is not beyond getting people from marginalized communities to consult on his work (see: Suicide Squad), so why, when writing two characters that should be disabled, one that the disabled community have been criticising for a decade, does he not reach out to a single disabled person? A mere Google search could’ve improved the situation massively. In both the new design and the current writing, it is beyond clear that this is not just an able-bodied person writing it -- it’s an ableist person.

He could have listened to the numerous disabled fans that spoke out. Instead, he chose not only to refuse to do that, but to describe justifiable anger as ‘raging’. He treated us like we were crazy for daring to speak out about blatant ableism being parading around of us in our pride month.

Tom Taylor has failed to do the bare minimum and in doing so, he is, at very, very least, guilty of complicity. Again: passive ableism is still ableism.

The argument at hand is not just about Barbara Gordon and the continuing ableism that shines out from her current writing. The argument is about the treatment of disabled characters in his run. It has also become about the way he treats physically disabled people.

We also can’t have this conversation without acknowledging the fandom’s role in it all. I waited a day to write this up, to allow all the reactions to flood in... and I am sickened.

We have everything across the board. Able-bodied people that have actually listened to disabled people, who have supported us (which is deeply appreciated). Able-bodied people who may have had good intentions, but a skewed sense of the situation and perpetuating some of the more insidious lies being spread around (IE. that this is only about the new costume).

There are, obviously, the ableist reactions, though, that we will be discussing here. People deeming the current issues as ‘crazy’, calling disabled people ‘overly sensitive’ and ‘delusional’. Many people have completely glossed over the examples given for why Taylor, specifically, is ableist, and instead have resorted to telling disabled people that we are wrong and should be mad at DC instead.

It’s important to note that Tom Taylor is an adult man. He doesn’t need a fandom to attack disabled people for daring to call him out. He is not the victim in this situation; he has, for quite a few disabled people, been the aggressor.

I have seen claims that Infinite Frontier is a ‘slow burn’, implying that disabled people need to patient... as if we have not waited a decade for less ableist writing. There is a complete refusal from able-bodied fans to actually listen to what disabled people are saying. They would much rather rush to the defence of the (honestly rather mediocre) current Nightwing run.

Disabled fans know that comic book spaces are ableist. We know that both DC and Marvel and many of their writers are ableist. We are still allowed to be pissed as hell about it and acting like the current reaction being had right now is disabled people being ‘overdramatic’ is yet another example of how the able-bodied side of the fandom both refuses to listen to and undermine disabled people when we call out ableism.

We know it when we see it. We always do and we always will and we will always be able to recognize it far faster than an able-bodied person. If this many disabled fans are coming out and talking about an issue, calling it ableism, then it’s time for you shut up and listen.

Stop being a part of the problem and start supporting disabled fans for once.

#barbara gordon #dick grayson #nightwing #batgirl #tom taylor #tw ableism #okay to rb

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junhaoshua · 4 years

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Three Times Wylan Pined (And Once He Didn’t Need To) - Two

A/N: Hello! It’s been a long time since my last fic, but I’m BACK ~ This is a (long-overdue) graduation present for the lovely @a-symphony-in-vellichor! She asked for a fluffy Wesper short, and it finally jolted me out of my creative block. This fic is fully-written, and new chapters will be posted every day until it’s completed!

As always, I own none of the characters; @lbardugo created them and I’m just playing in her sandbox.

***

Two

Jesper continues coming back to the coffeeshop after that first day, both with and without Kaz.

On good days, he’ll saunter in with a grin, flirt maddeningly, order a pastry and something full of caffeine, and then type away like a madman for hours.

On bad days, he’ll walk in with a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes, crack a few jokes, order something ridiculously rich and sweet, and nurse it while staring at his screen with furrowed brows, his legs jumping restlessly under the table.

And then there’s the last two days. Yesterday, where he randomly ordered a chai latte to go and dashed out right after. And today, where he ordered something over-caffeinated but didn’t get a pastry with it. He’s barely typing and keeps looking up from his screen distractedly. But he’s smiling, not at all like it’s a bad day.

It’s so different from the Jesper that Wylan’s seen for the last few weeks that he can’t help but keep staring. And given it’s another quiet day, there aren’t any customers to distract him from his silly, romantic, ridiculous thoughts.

Without thinking about it too much, Wylan picks up his pencil and starts sketching. The lines of Jesper’s elegant nose and jaw. The broad, strong shoulders rippling under the bright pink shirt. The way the sunlight dapples his cloudlike hair. The curve of those lips -

“Inej!” Jesper suddenly calls, rising up from his chair. Wylan turns to the door just in time to see the boy barrelling at a tiny Suli girl who seems to have appeared from nowhere. How did she get in without the bell sounding?

“This is the place I told you about - literally no one comes here - it’s the perfect place to work on our paper -” Jesper babbles as he pulls the girl over to the counter, one arm around her shoulders. He’s at least two heads taller than her, which should have made their position awkward but it just looks so comfortable -

Wylan cuts off his train of thought about how nice it would be to be hugged by Jesper, and stuffs his sketch under the counter out of sight just in time.

Jesper’s still monologuing. “So - sunshine, this is Inej. Inej, he does the best drawings for cups, you wouldn’t believe -”

The girl laughs, low and pleasant, and steps forward. “Sunshine?” she asks with a smile.

“It’s Wylan, actually.”

She grins. “Jes does like to nickname people. Anyway, he tells me you’re responsible for that lovely chai latte I had yesterday?”

Oh. That explained. “I’m glad you liked it.”

“Can I get it, tall? With a plate of strawberry waffles?”

“Coming right up.” He draws inspiration from the delicate silver pin holding Inej’s hijab in place to sketch a feathery wing on her cup, and hands it to her to see her delighted smile. Today’s sun is more intricate, more bright, with a sketched halo of light around it.

Jesper waves her to go take a seat first, and continues hanging around while the waffles cook, leaning against the counter with long-limbed ease. “That was a pretty job. Almost as pretty as your face.”

“I like drawing, I guess.”

“Got any pieces other than the cups? I’d love to see more.”

His mind flits to the drawing he did earlier, and he feels his face heating. “This one, the sketch of the harbour,” he says, tapping the drawing below the glass top of the counter.

Jesper’s eyes widen, and he whistles. “That’s talent. Real talent. You’re in the arts school?”

He nods shyly. “Studying art and music. I don’t know yet which I want to pursue.”

“One day, I’ll see a picture of that pretty face in the papers, and you’re going to be famous, and I’ll say, hey, that’s Wylan!” He reaches across, pats Wylan’s hand for emphasis.

Wylan doesn’t think it’s possible to flush any more. The spots where Jesper touched him are so warm, warmer than his cheeks. “What are you studying?” he asks, before he can spontaneously combust.

“Law and business, double major. It’s how I met the other two.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid. He wishes the ground would open up and swallow him. Why would a law student want a barista trying to put himself through art school? A barista who’s so useless he can’t even read?

Mercifully, the waffle iron beeps, relieving him of the need to say anything. “I - I’ve got to do the waffles,” he stammers, turning away and busying himself. The drawing from earlier looks up at him mockingly, like a dream that can never come true.

***

Because of course there’s pining ~ also, Wylan has some serious self-esteem issues and internalized ableism. To all my readers who have disabilities, you are important, you are valid, and you are amazing!

Crossposted on AO3

#my work #soc #fic #fanfic #six of crows fanfic #wesper #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #inej ghafa #coffeeshop au #college au #fluff #pining #a-symphony-in-vellichor

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secretlyatargaryen · 4 years

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Don't respond if you don't like talking about specific/individual ppl or are irritated by such asks, if so I apologize. So do you have any thoughts on the Tyrion narratives put forth by content creators like PoorQuentyn/BryndenBfish? I know u wrote on Brynden's "monster" piece, but I searched Tyrion/Tysha on twitter and have followed other NotACast Tyrion discussion,and it all seems to be aimed at framing him villainously,and since they're influencers, it sets the tone for all Tyrion discussion.

I do want to answer this question, but I don’t want to start discourse directed at any specific person so I thought about blacking out the names. But as you said, I’ve responded to these specific people before and written my own counter-meta so it’s no secret what I think about their theories. And they do have influence in the fandom and this interpretation of Tyrion is a popular one so it’s not like I’m dog-piling on a small minority by making a different argument. And you’re right about it setting a tone, and I think we need to be aware of the tone we’re setting when it comes to a visibly disabled character like Tyrion, and I think a lot of people aren’t aware of this or refuse to be sensitive to it. It’s better than it used to be but the ableism in this fandom is still shockingly bad. I mean, I saw a post recently calling Tyrion the “most vile” character in the books. Really? That vile dwarf, amirite?

I will say first of all that any argument for Tyrion’s villainy that claims him as “the monster he was told he was” or any iteration of that phrase should be dismissed outright on the grounds of gross ableism. Even if Tyrion ended up as the biggest villain of the series, he would not be the monster he was always told he was because he was told that because of ableism, by a society that thinks that disabled people are less than human, and that is fundamentally wrong.

I know we use the word “monster” in a moral sense, to describe a person who does acts that we consider so heinous that they seem inhuman, but not only is that fundamentally wrong - because even people who commit horrible acts are still human, despite what is comforting to think - but there’s a connotation of ableism there even without taking into account how it’s used in the text to demonize Tyrion, and used by his family and others to justify abusing him.

Like, if I can go on a tangent for a second, I started thinking about this when I used to be a big “Dexter” fan, before I’d ever read asoiaf or seen an episode of GOT. Dexter is a ridiculous show and not very good (but I love it), and it suffers from the same problems that a lot of villain discourse in fandom revolves around. Dexter is a bad guy but in the context of the show, he is a hero. Dexter, the character, often calls himself a monster in the show, and yeah, he’s reprehensible. He’s a serial killer whose one redeeming quality is that he kills other killers. He’s more reprehensible in the books and the earlier seasons before the show got too in love with the idea of him as the good guy, but even before that, I started noticing something really interesting. The ways that Dexter refers to himself as a monster have less to do with his serial killing habits and more to do with how he is mentally different than others. I don’t mean in the “sociopathic” sense, either, because early Dexter would talk about himself in ways that are recognizable to a lot of neuroatypical people. Dexter talks about pretending to be a real person and not a monster the way that my college roommate and I would talk about pretending to be real people when we would work up the spoons to go out to a party.

After I realized this, I began to be really uncomfortable every time I heard the word “monster” on the news, used to describe some person who’d committed some terrible crime. I get why people use this word, because, as I said above, it’s comforting to distance these sorts of people - rapists, murderers - from humanity, to pretend they’re inhuman. I’m not asking anyone to find the humanity in a rapist. I’m not saying that disabled people are just like serial killers. What I AM saying, though, is that using the word “monster” to describe a canonically disabled character who, throughout his life and throughout the series, has suffered horrible abuse because of ableism, carries a lot of unfortunate implications. We use this word to distance humans from their humanity. Tywin and Cersei also use this distancing language to justify poor treatment of Tyrion. He’s not Cersei’s brother, he’s not Tywin’s and Joanna’s son, he’s a monster. The slavers use it to refer to the slaves in Yezzen’s menagerie, which includes disabled people and an intersex person. And we should all know that the best way to justify enslaving and abusing others is to dehumanize them. Don’t call Tyrion a monster. Don’t.

The same thing needs to be said about arguments that use Tyrion/Tysha as evidence for Tyrion’s villainy. I’ve written extensively about this and I’m not going to argue with anyone on whether Tyrion should be blamed for what happened there, because he was a child being sexually abused by a parent and any attempts to retroactively assign blame or link this to theories about Tyrion’s future villainy is completely and absolutely wrong.

Now, as far as what I have to say about the narrative that Tyrion is a villain / will be by the end of the series? That depends on a lot of things, and one of them is what we mean when we say a character is a villain.

A lot of people, when they talk about this, are of course talking about the theory that Tyrion will somehow lead Dany astray and manipulate her into blowing up King’s Landing. Unless you’re one of those weirdo people who also think Dany is a villain, but that’s a whole different story and I don’t feel the need to address that because it’s complete nonsense. Anyway.

But here’s the thing. In asoiaf there’s multiple conflicts in every POV narrative, and in Tyrion’s story here’s what I see as the two major big ones: the internal conflict, Tyrion vs himself and his desire to prove that he is not a monster / his desiire for goodness / love / acceptance; and the external conflict, the more immediate of which is Tyrion getting back to Westeros / whatever role he plays in the war of five kinds / whatever role he plays in the song of ice and fire / the conflict with the others.

The things that people often cite as making Tyrion villainous are personal villainies. They’re part of the internal conflict. And in this conflict, Tyrion himself is his own villain. GRRM says that killing Shae is “the great crime of his soul” (and I would also add raping the woman in Selhorys) and those are part of Tyrion’s internal conflict because their role in the narrative is the effect they have on Tyrion mentally. I don’t mean that what happened to these women isn’t important, but from a narrative perspective, they are important for how what happens to them affects Tyrion. Now, we could talk about how that’s problematic, but it’s problematic from a narrative perspective, and that should be lain at the author’s feet. And the problematic aspect of it is that it’s NOT there to make Tyrion a villain. It’s there to provide conflict for Tyrion’s internal struggle, which he will need to resolve in order to participate in the external conflict. I think that’s the real reason why some fans hate Tyrion, but I wish we could be honest about that instead of pretending the author intends him to be a villain, because that’s just not how Tyrion is written.

Now, when I say the internal conflict has to be resolved, I don’t necessarily mean that it will be solved, or resolved in a good way. I think it would be like GRRM to have Tyrion play a major part in saving all of humanity and still be terrible on a personal level, but I don’t think that’s where he’s going with Tyrion either. I mean, in the latter half of ADWD he has Tyrion say things like this:

An honest kiss, a little kindness, everyone deserves that much, however big or small.

Which is…just not the statement of a character who is being written as a villain. If GRRM were writing Tyrion as becoming a villain in Dance it would be a gradual progression to more and more villainy. Instead he has Tyrion vacillate between depression, apathy, and cruelty and kindness and heroism. In fandom spaces we used to call this Heroic BSoD, Joseph Campbell called it The Innermost Cave. This is the part in the story where you don’t want to hear the end, Mr. Frodo, because how can the end be good, after all that bad has happened?

…You get the idea. GRRM is darker and grittier, and we can argue about whether he goes too far, especially when it comes to his unfortunate habit of fridging female characters, but that’s a different issue.

So, my thoughts on whether I think Tyrion will cause Dany to blow up King’s Landing? I mean, I don’t necessarily think it unlikely for GRRM to go that route, but if he does it won’t be that simple. Like I said, there’s a difference between the internal, personal conflict in Tyrion’s narrative and the external, wider conflict that is going to come to the fore in the next two books. Will Tyrion try and convince Dany to blow up King’s Landing because of his own desire for revenge on his family / the city that turned on him / people in general? Maybe, but that won’t be his only motivation, and Dany isn’t going to be his hapless puppet. If that happens, here’s how I see it: I think Tyrion, when he finally meets Dany and sees the dragons, is going to buy into what she is selling. Yes, Tyrion is incredibly cynical about Dany, but he’s also intrigued and even a little hopeful, and there’s also that inner part of him that’s going to be all “dragonsdragonsdragonsDRAGONSGDSDrasfGonSSDRGRRAGONSS.” So if he has a hand in getting Dany to torch the city, it will be because he actually thinks it’s necessary or that it’s an acceptable sacrifice for the world Dany wants to create (a world where even a dwarf can look down upon the world on the back of a dragon) with maybe a side helping of revenge because here’s Dany, the rightful heir to the throne, who wants to make the world a better place and who trusts and values him, and here’s the city full of corrupt people who hate him, who almost executed him for something he didn’t do. Tyrion’s crime there might be convincing himself that it’s an acceptable sacrifice to make, for the greater good, but that’s not that different than decisions many of the rulers in the books have made, and that’s a scenario in which he, Dany, and anyone else at play are equally culpable, and a far cry from the theories about how he’s going to be the villain leading Dany astray. GRRM is too good of a character writer to pull anything else with one of his major POVs, especially not his favorite who he has often stated is “the grayest of the gray.”

It would also be like GRRM to have Tyrion commit war crimes and still save all of humanity on the back of a dragon as his final act of love, resolving the internal conflict once and for all. I have problems with this too, because I find it incredibly uncomfortable for a disabled character whose narrative deals so personally with a desire for love end with him dying in a selfless act of sacrifice / have some kind of epiphany about how his desire to receive love on a personal scale is not important. I go back and forth, but really, the only thing I’m sure about is that GRRM is not going to make it so easy for us to categorize Tyrion in the end.

#tyrion lannister #valyrianscrolls #asoiaf meta #ableism cw #abuse cw #rape cw

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janiedean · 5 years

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I was just wondering what do you think about posts that excuse Cersei's behaviour because she's mentally ill, or that if you critique its because your ableist and hate mentally ill people? Or some variation/combination of the two? Like it just bugs me in general when people automatically excuse and even justify horrible, violent and abusive behaviour just because someone's mentally ill, particularly as someone whose been on the receiving end of that behaviour from mentally ill people.

... I think I’ve made my opinion clear, but very briefly and hoping that I don’t unleash the kraken:

c.’s issues could have been solved if someone had sent her to a child psychologist before the age of then in modern au. period. because someone who grows up not having a shred of regret over having thrown a supposed friend in a well when they were twelve over a menial thing either should have had a completely different upbringing or should have gotten therapy. which doesn’t exist in westeros, but anyway, when discussing c’s issues that’s the crux of the matter;

c’s issues also hurt other people and I’m not talking about j., I’m talking about everyone around her or mostly, and the point is that the moment someone’s issues also mean hurting others... your freedom ends where others’s starts. assuming that her MH issues mean that she’s justified in behaving the way she does means that having MH issues is a free out of jail card for hurting others, which... it’s not;

spoilers: all three lannister siblings have mental health issues. same as like, 90% of the characters in these books. I’m 99% sure that the only two POV characters who doesn’t have issues that would require immediate therapy are davos (and he’s lost four kids, he has his problems) and asha, probably, and asha is just... very functional but it’s a miracle she came out like that considering her background. everyone else has issues over issues to different degrees, so... at this point disliking anyone in these books with this reasoning would mean hating mentally illy people while at the same time 85% of the characters you like most likely also have mental health issues and I’m talking just that, because I mean... if someone likes bran and not doran or viceversa I’m not going to assume that they’re ableist since both characters are disabled and both can’t walk, but most likely it’s just a personality preference, so saying that if you don’t like c. it’s because you hate mentally ill people or are ableist to me is ridiculous because like... I don’t like c. and my top five has three pov characters who have obviously mental health issues up the wazoo and one who most likely had plenty (and two out of those five also have become physically disabled as well during the series), I have gone to therapy for a damned long time myself and I hate mentally ill people now just because I don’t like a character who has MH issues? sorry but that’s like... ridiculous. you’re allowed to not like some characters because their personality is not your thing regardless of the issues they have;

also: again, c.’s issues hurt other people. those other people have no obligation to stick by if they feel like it’s detrimental to their health, same as no one has an obligation to stick by someone who is detrimental to their MH or well-being and also has no intention of changing/is aware of that. like, I can get behind wanting to support someone you love whose behavior hurts you who has realized it and is getting help/is actively trying to get better, but if that person doesn’t care or isn’t aware then no one has an obligation to stick by if it hurts them, so assuming that people who don’t like c. or whoever else or that characters in the books should stick by c. because of her issues if it hurts them is imvho not a thing people should even bring up because it implies that people have an obligation to excuse actions that are hurtful when the person who commits them has no interest in getting better, so... nah;

also there’s critique and critique and disliking a disabled character doesn’t automatically make you ableist same as disliking a woman doesn’t make you a misogynist, but like, going outside cersei: people can dislike tyrion just because they don’t gaf about him or because they don’t like the character or because they don’t find his personality that charming, but the moment the criticism turns into calling him a monster or joking about his height or basically sounding like tywin when he talks about tyrion then it’s definitely ableism and to be quite honest when it comes to tumblr there’s a lot more ableist critique thrown at tyrion than at cersei, because the ten of us who dislike her openly do it because she’s terrible while recognizing that she has issues which explain why she’s like that but don’t justify what she does at pretty much almost any point ever, the army of people who meta about tyrion as if he’s these books’s ultimate villain when 90% it’s because he could be in the way of their ship or say that he has male privilege over c. who therefore couldn’t have abused him (YES I had to read that with mine own eyes) and the likes most likely should check their priorities because that’s not hating him bc he’s a character you don’t like, that reeks of ableism 101 and of having skimmed his chapters (also tyrion has MH issues up the wazoo too but I don’t see people on here mentioning it). same way, one thing is disliking cat because she’s not your type of character, another is the fact that this entire fandom seems to have decided that blaming catelyn for every horrid thing that happened in these books that would not have happened had she just stayed home with the kids which imvho shows exactly the level of not-so-hidden misogyny rampant around here/directed at her specifically. but I don’t think that everyone who hates cat is misogynist or does it because of misogyny, I just think that a lot of fandom bias against her is... very misogynistic;

to sum up the above thing, considering that c. is also straight up written as a negative character and grrm has said time and time again that it’s her point in the narrative, assuming that someone would dislike her just because she’s MH is pretty much fried air as we say here because given what she’s pulled up until now, I think that she has enough of a CV that people have more than enough reasons to dislike her without bringing her mental health into account. because her issues might explain why she’s like that, but they don’t justify for shit anything she does, and if that’s valid for knowing why theon was the way he was in wf but doesn’t justify him killing the miller’s kids, knowing why jaime pushed bran but doesn’t justify it, knowing why sandor doesn’t disobey ethically horrid orders but doesn’t mean he hasn’t done pretty fucked up shit etc., then it’s also valid for c. and I really would like for characters to be judged evenly, thanks.

also: everyone has their limits when it comes to understanding/explaining where a person committing wrong actions comes from. if people can relate to c. and/or see themselves in her issues and have compassion for her, that’s their prerogative and I won’t go bitch at them for it same as I appreciate if people don’t bitch at me for having compassion for theon or sandor or jaime or whoever else. but at the same time assuming that everyone has your standards is ridiculous. for me c. was irredeemable after she basically went and laughed about the red wedding/thought she was so much better than cat because cat went insane after seeing robb die because to me people finding the red wedding funny or hilarious or well-deserved is the ultimate thing that will make me stop caring about them. if for someone jaime having pushed bran out of the window is irredeemable as long as they don’t come to me complaining about why I don’t think it is, it’s their prerogative.

but assuming that all of us need to find c. redeemable or understandable or relatable because people who like her do is ridiculous because you can’t expect anyone to relate to your favorites just because you do, and calling out the social justice card is ridiculous because fictional preferences are what they are and you can’t force yourself to like someone you despise just because they belong to X category - I wouldn’t tell people they have to like jaime because he has ptsd nor I’d expect them to be automatically ableist if they don’t gaf about jaime either way and don’t make jokes about him losing his guts with his hand or about how he’s the stupidest lannister, I’d expect people wouldn’t tell me I have to like c. because she has MH issues or whatnot. because there’s plenty of reasons to dislike c. and none of them have to do with her MH and most of her have to do with her abusive behavior.

also, last thing: the one time I actually met someone who was a self-proclaimed ‘I empathize with cersei on a personal level’ person, after three days in which they were an asshole to everyone in the group we were, the moment I called her out on it after she had been even more of an asshole when someone else tried to discuss it reasonably, I got backhanded in the face twice for it. now, I handled it and tbqh I didn’t mind it half as much as I could have because I didn’t gaf about this person and barely knew them. I also know that this person had issues (and later went to therapy so good for them), but as much as I could sympathize with her issues, forgive me if I don’t really think I want to see again someone who barely knew me and saw fit to hit me in the face twice. now, am I ableist for that? I really don’t think so. it’s the exact same principle. someone else might have had another reaction to it, but I’m not obliged to give them a second chance since they hurt me first and no one would say I’m ableist for it. it’s the exact same argument just brought to fictional level. one thing is disliking a character because of their issues only (ie theon and the castration jokes), another is disliking them because you think they’re boring and/or they’re not your kind of character.

and people need to realize that their favorite character can’t be everyone’s favorite character statistically. like. none of our faves are automatically everyone’s faves and that’s fine because that’s how the world works. *shrug*

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #mental health cw #anti-cersei #anti-cersei lannister #janie rants #*shrug*#Anonymous #ask post

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virovac · 5 years

Text

My Letter draft to Noelle and She-Ra Staff

Followers: any thoughts on this? (see Keep Reading linl)

I finally pulled up the energy to edit it. Now I just need a way to get it to them.

I think I found an address for Noelle’s fanmail, but I am dubious of validity

Noelle Stevenson

Agency for the Performing Arts 405 S Beverly Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90212-4425 USA

“I would like to register a concern with the presentation of the Kyle character. I know its too late to likely change the majority writing, but if it could stop you guys from doing a poor taste epilogue gag or something, I want to take the chance.

I am speaking on this partly because Kyle's issues with memory and following directions match up perfectly with my own experiences with trauma. I found myself having difficulty being useful to my family without constant supervision, constantly dissasociating and it was one of the worst feelings in the world.

Kyle does not come off as "hero from a comedy parody who missed the call", he comes off as a serious abuse victim.

The effects of bullying and abuse are being noticeably played for laughs with this character and its honestly very hurtful sometimes, just seeing someone continually be blamed for what appears to be a mental disorder likely genetic or caused by stress, or for other peoples mistakes

It doesn't seem much different than laughing at someone in a wheelchair.

And if he's meant to be " just like that" ,well that's a different set of problems.

As someone who needed learning accommodations, I can't help but feel portraying a character as just naturally "a loser" reinforces ableist sentiments.

And its worse when the jokes are about someone in an abusive environment.Having an abuse victim be a natural screwup encourages blaming the victim and ignoring how stress affects memory and learning ability.

I have actually seen fans, mostly on the younger side, saying that people like Kyle should just kill themselves or better off never having been born, so I think this is a valid concern.

On another note, the way scenes have been done with Kyle seem like they would be very alienating to real life bullying or abuse victims.

While from a Watsonian perspective Bow has no reason to owe anything to a kidnapper, kids are going to see someone in a bad situation reaching out for sympathy, and just being used and (literally) tossed aside.

And far worse, and the reason I started this letter: the starvation joke in S3E5.

Not only did it make no sense, even for the dream world (how would Kyle only have bars of the one flavor Adora likes? This should have been something that should have been off to Adora); starving someone is a real life abuse tactic on par with what Shadow Weaver does.

When the food he’s forced to give up gets ruined and he’s blamed for it he just…shuts down. Its like watching one of those youtube videos that recently got shut down where parents encourage their children to abuse eachother for. Its as realistic as the abuse Catra goes through, but its played for laughs.

And Adora does nothing , and doesn't react to someone being forced to go hungry for a whole week. Which for the active lifestyle of the Horde, could be life threatening.

And starving someone in the Horde makes no sense . You can't fast in wartime, soldiers need protein.

In summary: what I'm trying to say is: some people process trauma like Kyle does. And seeing the narrative treat the trauma symptoms other characters show sympathetically, while how Kyle's are treated with mockery and ridicule within and outside the show and used to justify more abuse…it can be very hurtful.

I don't think Kyle needs to be a main character, but I think its important he be allowed to get better and heal and not be shown as still a "loser" in the end of the show. Show him getting medication and counseling, show his life improving. Show something. Don't end the character on a slapstick note.

Or if you can't change it at this point: A special lesson comic written to take place after the show, some public statements and apologies, advertisement for organizations helping people in positions similar to Kyle...those would go along way.

Or Netflix could maybe just edit out that line about it being stolen from him, that would be a godsend.

People with stress caused learning disabilities can improve in a better environment and I feel that needs to be shown.

I think the problem of how this happened is that tropes for “loser” , “nerd”, and “comedic everyman” all intersect and exchange with eachother. And how much the “loser” and “nerd” are are often tied into ableism or hostility towards neuroatypical traits.

I ask you: please, please be more mindful in future projects!

On a more personal note that "ration scene" also made the Repkyle teasing in the show somewhat...triggering when I rewatch. All I can see now is an abuser during one of their "nicer moments". (That's how abusers often keep their victims around)

Is actually giving me a sinking uncomfortable feeling after seeing Rogelio abusing Kyle by starvation and Adora acting as if that was normal in the dreamworld.

I was ambivalent and now, on some days,seeing Repkyle content actually causes me occasional physical discomfort. Like my throat or stomach hurts

I miss when it was a cute fun ship, but now you guys are shipteasing him with someone you've shown as willing to abuse him. In a dream world, but Adora acts as if nothing was wrong and that was normal behavior.”

#spop discourse #spop critical #asking for advice #kyle discourse

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yenneferw · 6 years

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Can you please rant about jk Rowling she’s fucking awful with her queerbaiting, racism, and transphobia. Like I need someone else to validate me for not liking her

absolutely i hate her!!!!! this is a REALLY long post but she’s written so much and she’s been in the spotlight since her books got famous so like… there’s a lot to talk about i guess. anyway @ jk rowling get ready to be called out

racism

first of all on this valid bitch of an i hate jk rowling post, the ilvermorny houses. it’s like…. Big cultural appropriation of native american ideas and stories, twisting them to fit her narrative for harry potter and completely disrespecting their history and origins. the history she creates for north american wizards is shit too, saying that native americans would “primitively” practice magic until europeans civilized them with wands (even tho…. it’s like really impressive to do magic without wands in her universe??? like sounds like the native americans were way ahead of europeans, but ofc she twists her own narrative to make the natives primitive). her whole history or north american wizardry also apparently just follows white wizards immigrating to north america and shit……

this video is……. a really good poem on the stereotypes and fetishization of cho chang and there’s no way i can reword what the speaker says bc she says it too good so,,, watch it

jk rowling is also really good at speaking out about racism when she wants to on twitter and yet all of her canonical poc characters in the books are background characters. i know hermione is black in the cursed child play, but that feels a bit like the dumbledore thing to me, like they never actually talk abotu it in the books? and if she wanted hermione to be black why didn’t she have any protests about emma watson being cast? if she wanted harry to be brown why didn’t she have any protests about daniel radcliffe being cast? i don’t know if she had any say in that, but i guess she had a say in insisting that the actors had to be british, so if she cared about making a main character poc, why did she not have any qualms about the cast, even in retrospect, even respectful ones like “i love daniel and emma to death but in retrospect i wrote them as characters of color”?

like she didn’t have to push dean and cho and the very small characters of color to the side but she did. she didn’t have to stereotype cho but she did. there are no poc in fbawtft, or there aren’t in the movie at least – and if she’s so happy about johnny depp and can speak out about that relentlessly, but she wanted there to be characters of color in fantastic beasts, why can’t she speak out about that?

like the cultural appropriation is enough to see that she’s clearly a racist asshole who doesn’t care about the cultures of people who aren’t white, but it’s also clear to see in the background of her writing that she doesn’t care about research for shit if it’ll help to respect people of color in her stories, and she certainly doesn’t care to ensure that there are important characters of color for people to look up to when they read her books or watch the movies about them

transphobia

i guess she liked a terf’s article on twitter? like i dont’ knwo how reputable my sources on that were or if she meant to, but if she did, yikes

and from what i saw of the article it was Deep Terf Rhetoric, and tbqh i wouldn’t put it past her to have meant to have done that

i’ve seen ppl saying harry potter has transphobic aspects to it as well but i couldn’t find anything under all the times she’s “defended” trans ppl on twitter like idk i can’t take anythign she says on twitter by heart bc everything she does feels performative and fake af, and i haven’t read the books in like four years so i can’t say for sure based on my own memory

also she wrote a trans woman in a more recent novel and she’s apparently totally impulsively violent like wow great way to conform to nasty stereotypes about trans women lmfao

like esp bc of this i wouldn’t put it past her to be a terf

homophobia & queerbaiting

saying! dumbledore! is gay! after! the fucking! book series! is not! representation!!!!!

even if she HAD make him gay during the series, he’s not good rep??? he was a manipulative asshole who let a child stay in an abusive home becuase he was too big of a dumbass to think about a way around the issue so that a little boy could live in a home full of people who treated him fairly. so uhh?? the cishets can fucking have him, i don’t WANT him in the goddamn community.

but she thinks that she’s not homophobic bc he’s the only gay character who never even got to talk about being gay, who we never see in a relationship with a man. like throwing gay ppl scraps isn’t?? rep??? it’s queerbaiting you dumb bitch @ jk rowling….

she specifically said herself that werewolves are meant to represent diseases like AIDS, and characters like fenrir greyback are predatory werewolves who want tos pread around the AIDS-like disease, conforming to 1980s homophobic stereotypes against gay people for “wanting” to spread around AIDS like how can you in one breath say you want to bring light to diseases like AIDS and in the next make a character who literally models homophobic stereotypes with the same disease??

also, remus was supposed to be gay apparently, but he “changed and fell in love with tonks” like ok first of all bi people exist, second of all why would you write a straight person who’s supposed to basically have AIDS when that sounds a hell of a lot like “predatory gay man infects poor straight kid” like there’s SO MUCH wrong with that, and yeah you kind of have to dig into it a little bit to get there, but when you’re writing about risky topics and you literally admit to it, you need to be WELL-VERSED on what you’re writing about!! and to say you’re writing about AIDS is deeply mixed with gay history! and to say that the main character who is a werewolf was SUPPOSED to be gay and then pretend you’re NOT associating it with gay people is just… such cognitive dissonance, or maybe really ridiculous ignorance

also, dumbledore is dead. so even if he was good rep, and it was within the books, he’s fucking dead. another buried gay, fuckos! pile em up!

and i’ve heard there’s a shit ton of queerbaiting between harry’s son and draco’s son in cursed child? which like…. may just be subtext, but there’s a huge section of the fandom who’s all about harry x draco (i have not good feelings about that ship personally but to say it’s not popular is to never have seen anything in the fandom), and she must know that? like she’s not oblivious is she? so why would she like…. put subject between their sons? ?? it feels like it’s a bone to “hey i never gave you harry x draco, so here are their sons, who i’m also never going to give you”

also? if grindelwald WAS dumbledore’s bf at some point, what does that say about what she thinks about queer men? he’s deeply predatory and preys on credence in a very creepy way that plays on stereotypes about older gay men preying on younger gay boys, and he’s also a disgusting villain played by johnny fucking depp, an abuser (who SHE SUPPORTS) of all people. what does that say about what her mind goes to when she thinks about gay men?????

i don’t actually know her role in those films, but she has said she loves depp, what he’s done with the character, and where the darkness of grindelwald is going in the first movie and its sequels, so even if her role is very little, she supports what is being done.

also…. um apparently newt scamander created a werewolf registry…. a little honest to god werewolf registry in the fucking 40s….. ??????????? what r we supposed to think here, about a registry of discriminated ppl in the FORTIES…….????? and that’s the protag of fantastic beasts… cool it’s fine it’s fine

ableism

when talking about irredeemable characters like voldemort, she literally said that “whether it’s a personality disorder or illness” they’re not redeemable…. !!!?? here is a post on that subject with links to the sources of the interviews she said this in.

i don’t know where to put this bc this could be any number of things but i just thought about this so i’ll put it here: the thing that’s created in fantastic beasts, where it’s like basically a personification of anguish from suppressing magic – that’s quite blatantly a reference to any number of minorities, like gay people suppressing their sexuality, trans people suppressing their gender, the mentally ill and disabled pushing themselves too hard or trying to ignore/hide it… and credence was vilified and killed and the protags weren’t even… really sad about it?? and the ministry of magic never really THOUGHT About that they just killed him….. and that’s okay…. that’s fine… they’re just going around killing a bunch of KIDS who are inconvenient to them and who basically symbolize a whole number of oppressed groups. cool, it’s fine

you could also make a point that werewolves also represent the mentally ill, and all the same fucked up shit basically applies here

she also said that everything that muggles can get can be cured by magic, thereby effectively giving some bullshit reason for not actually having any disabled or mentally ill characters, also assuming that it’s not totally ableist to just…. “cure” all that? she didn’t say it specifically about mental illnesses and disabilities, but it’s clear to see that with her attitude on “irredeemable” mentally ill people, she would

fatphobia

most fat characters in harry potter are shitty people. the dursleys, pettigrew, and umbridge – all characters we’re supposed to find deeply wrong, the ones we’re supposed to hate the most other than, like, voldemort. like…..? a lot of the other fat characters are all “matronly” like molly weasley or stubborn and “lazy” like cornelius fudge who allowed voldemort to rise to power. like what’s that supposed to say about what she thinks the extent of fat people is? stubborn, evil, or motherly?

she actually has a character grow fatter and fatter based on how shitty she acts towards harry because of a magic mishap. she also usually describes the nice fat people as “plump” and “pleasant,” while she describes dudley as “so much like a pig” that he couldn’t even be turned furhter into a pig when it was attempted, or as a “killer whale,” or vernon dursley as “having no neck”

her fascination with abusers

exhibit a: she loves johnny depp, she loves him for the part of grindelwald, she praises what he’s done for the character, she praises his casting. he’s abused his wife..................

exhibit b: she loves dumbledore. he is constantly manipulating harry and not actually helping him get out of difficult situations at home or at school, putting him and the other kids in danger multiple times, not talking about important information to keep them safe, like??

exhibit c: snape. a fucking nasty ass creep to lily. neville’s GREATEST FEAR. like i dont’ even need to talk about this, we all know snape, dumbledore, and johnny depp are shitty lmfao

and yet she named harry’s kids after dumbledore and snape, like they didn’t fuck harry’s life up, especially snape, who terrorized him and his friends.

in conclusion fuckos

she’s nasty!!!!! i was going to do a section on sexism but i can’t find anything – i think she’s too much of a White Feminist to be sexist, probably. likely she cares more about researching feminist issues than she does about researching native myths before she steals them for her own gain lmfao. there is the fact that she supports an abuser like johnny depp, tho!

she is constantly like… going against all this on twitter too lmfao, like it’s hard to find good articles on her shittiness on the first page of google bc most of it is “jk rowling defends trans people against transphobic tweet, jk rowling defends muslims against islamophobic tweet, jk rowling defends [this group or that group]” and yet she includes so much bigotry hidden in the details of her books and what she says about her books. like i know some of this isn’t quite on the surface, but ultimately when you write a book with subjects you don’t really know about, your inherent biases are going to be apparent under the surface, and since she’s such a famous author with so many books and so much spotlight on her, if you dig in a little you can make easy conclusions/clearly see what she thinsk about minorities. so it’s really fucking annoying that she’s so “good and progressive” on twitter because it’s obviously performative so she can get the progressive points required for more people to buy her shit. like that’s the best word i can think of to describe her: performative.

#this took me two hours to compile please appreciate me hhhhhHHHH #i know i didn't source a lot but i can find sources if y'all want. most of it is me just talking about what she's said anyway #ask #anon #anti jk rowling #anyway let it be known i love harry potter as much as the next asshole of this generation but you can love hp and hate her

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virovac · 5 years

Text

Kyle Letter draft 3

I only have Noelle’s fanmail address I think, how

Anyway. Looking for further feedback.

I would like to register a concern with the presentation of the Kyle character. I know its too late to change the majority writing, but if it could stop you guys from doing a poor taste epilogue gag or something, I want to take the chance.

First of all I'd like to thank you for making this show.

I've always wanted to be a writer, but I've had trouble with dialogue.

But for some rreason , this show has been so inspiring and I've written a tremendous amount of fanfiction in the past two years than I have in my life.

This show is wonderful in many ways and has improved my self-confidence. I am glad it exists.

Which makes what I'm discussing all the more painful

I know many people oddly expect Kyle to be He-Man or join the main cast. I think the issue is more than just many are culturally conditioned to assume a white guy is important.

A large part of it is because they expected a show by LGBT+ creators to have more to say about bullying than including it for cheap laughs and 90s style subversion humor such as that "touching scene" with Bow that felt like out of the 90s shows mocking the concept of compassion to the enemy espoused by shows like Classic She-Ra.

Kyle does not come off as "hero from a comedy parody who missed the call", he comes off as a serious abuse victim. Or the odd quiet kid in your class you regret not treating better years later. His reactions and what happens to him, outside of fight scenes (which are hilarious), aren't slapstick and come across very real.

If he is intended to mock a protagonist archetype, then I am afraid the archetype its mocking is the "hero in an abusive home" like Harry Potter.

Everywhere else in the show addressing the topics of isolation and abuse are treated seriously. And the show otherwise treats concepts like compassion with earnest. The show has generally been earnest and sincere.

Kyle's situation being played entirely for laughs stands out starkly, and comes off as a tremendous double standard to other characters. Reinforcing the toxic idea that female victims are to be sympathised with, but not male victims. In an otherwise very progressive show, this is upholding a character as deserving abuse for being "weak" or "not tough".

The issue isn't that its happening, the issue is how its being framed

As I stated above. Kyle's issues with forgetting things and following directions match my own experience with trauma.

“Experiencing traumatic events directly impairs the ability to learn, both immediately after the event and over time.”

He lives in the Fright Zone, under Shadow Weaver

So the humor also comes off at laughing at the expense of someone disabled from repeated trauma.

And if he's meant to be " just like that" ,well that's a different set of problems.

As someone who needed learning accommodations, I can't help but feel portraying a character as just naturally "a loser" reinforces ableist sentiments.

And, relating it to stress-caused worse when the jokes are about someone in an abusive environment.Having an abuse victim be a natural screwup encourages blaming the victim and ignoring how stress affects memory and learning ability.

I have actually seen fans, mostly on younger side, saying that people like Kyle should just kill themselves or better never to have been born, so I think this is a valid concern.

A second issue is

The very way Kyle's two biggest scenes were done seem also like they would be very alienating to real life bullying or abuse victims.

Bow even talks like someone unable to comprehend an abusive living environment. "How can you get in trouble for just talking" making it all the more unnerving.

And far worse, and the reason I started this letter: the starvation joke in S3E5.

Not only did it make no sense, even for the dream world (how would Kyle only have bars of the one flavor Adora likesr? This should have been something that should have been off to Adora); starving someone is a real life abuse tactic on par with what Shadow Weaver does.

And Adora does nothing , and doesn't react to someone being forced to go hungry for a whole week. Which for the active lifestyle of the Horde, could be life threatening.

And starving someone in the Horde makes no sense . You can't fast in wartime, soldiers need protein.

So Reiteraing my main point: what I'm trying to say is: some people process trauma like Kyle does. And seeing the narrative treat the trauma symptoms other characters show sympathetically, while how Kyle's are treated with mockery and ridicule within and outside the show and used to justify more abuse…from personal experience as someone struggling with traume: it hurts.

I don't think Kyle needed to be a main character,I like his role of being a side character or “Steve” as they say in the Transformers fandom: adding a human face to the “incompetent faceless goons”. Reminding us they are broken people who have been taken in and spat out.

But I think its important he be allowed to get better and heal and not be shown as still a "loser" in the end of the show.

Or if you can't change a minor scene at this point: A special lesson comic written to take place after the show, some public statements and apologies, advertisement for organizations helping people in positions similar to Kyle...those would go along way.

Or Netflix could maybe just edit out that line about it being stolen from him, that would be a godsend. (And honestly, I have not seen a single person with a positive opinion towards that line.)

People with stress caused learning disabilities can improve in a better environment and I feel that needs to be shown.

I ask you please, please be more mindufl in future projects!

On a final, more personal note that "ration scene" also made the Repkyle teasing in the show somewhat...triggering when I rewatch. All I can see now is an abuser during one of their "nicer moments". (That's how abusers often keep their victims around)

Is actually giving me a sinking uncomfortable feeling after seeing Rogelio abusing Kyle by starvation and Adora acting as if that was normal in the dreamworld.

I was ambivalent and now, on some days,seein Repkyle content actually causes me occasional physical pain. Like my throat or stomach hurts

I miss when it was a cute fun ship, but now you guys are shipteasing him with someone you've shown as willing to abuse him. In a dream world, but Adora acts as if nothing was wrong and its not one of the signs something is off.

Unless Netflix were to go back to and edit out that line, well...its gonna be a stain on the entire show in my opinion.

#kyle discourse #spop critical

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